Monday, December 20, 2010

It only took about 300 food wishes before it finally came true, but here is my favorite lasagna. Since this is such a traditional Italian-American Christmas recipe, I figured what better time to post it?

By the way, this is simply my rendition of Italian-American lasagna, and not intended to claim any type of superiority, authenticity, or other such nonsense. If your Nonna uses fresh pasta, or insists on a béchamel, then bless her heart, but that's not how this half-Italian rolls.

There are only two things you need for great lasagna; a thick, rich, super-meaty meat sauce, and lots of it; and a ricotta filling where only the finest cheeses are welcomed. For the sauce I love a combination of half Italian sausage and half lean ground beef. I also like lots of sauce.

If you use too much sauce, the worst that can happen is you have a plate of pasta with sauce, but if you don't use enough, you end up with dry lasagna, and there's nothing sadder than dry lasagna.

For the cheese mixture I like the holy trinity of whole milk ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and Reggiano-Parmigiano. If you use the real stuff, your lasagna will taste better. I also use twice as much ricotta as most recipes, which works great here since I use twice the meat as well. Hey, this is Christmas lasagna after all. Enjoy!

Ingredients (for a deep 15" x 10" lasagna pan):

For the meat sauce:

1 pound Italian sausage

1 1/2 pound lean ground beef

8 oz mushrooms, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

6 cups marinara sauce

1/2 cup water

Note: depending on the seasoning of your sausage, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of an Italian dried herb blend.

172 comments:

You know just yesterday, I was talking to my wife about what to take out to my Folks for Christmas. "Does he have a Lasagna?", she asked. "Nope", I said dejectedly. Wait till I tell her!Thanks for the Christmas wish Chef John!

I just can't wait to make this!! I was one of those 300 who requested this so THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart! I always enjoy watching your videos...thanks for all your hard work. I hope you are feeling better! Merry Christmas to you and your family Chef John!

Great! I havn't been visiting the site a lot recently due to lack of interest (Lets face it, the freakishly small wooden spoon can only make a certain number of comebacks). But the garlic pasta thingy looks great and i've waited OVER A YEAR for you to make a lasagne recipe! What took you so damn long? ;)

Most Authentic-Fishianados don't pre boil pasta sheets but if you don't preboil it the sheets become tasteless and the top becomes rock solid. Whereas if you preboil them it gives it more flavour (Don't forget to salt the water) and they become soft and almost creepy. It makes the dish more unified and 'melded together' as opposed to "Pasta Sheets with a meat and cheese sauce. Anyone agree?

This is actually quite different to how I make it but i'm going to give it a go! My faith in this site has been restored!

Chef, just wanted to let you know, I saw this video and immediately went and bought twice the amount of ingredients so I can cook it today (meat sauce is simmering right now actually) and on Christmas day, too. Thanks for the recipe and I can't wait until a couple hours from now when it's done!! And to Kevin - how the heck does one actually lose interest in this site? This is the best video cooking blog on the internet by far!!

I should not have watched this. Now instead of working out I have the urge to throw on my raincoat, rush to the grocery store, and buy every last ingredient I need. Even though, the husband and I are having a steak dinner tonight to celebrate our anniversary. Pshhh, who needs steak?

A good lasgna recipe is something to treasure. After suffering through a few too many frozen, meatless "meat lasagnas" from the grocery store this will be a real treat. I will have to see if I can get my son to build this with me over the holidays. Thanks Chef John and Merry Christmas.

I believe I have been watching the videos on this site for about a year. I have been through the archives and have tried about 20 recipes. I have not been disappointed. ever. Sundays are my days to cook and I will be pairing this with your wonderful garlic bread recipe! THANKS CHEF JOHN.

Hi Chef John, Greetings from the Dominican Republic. I want to express that I am a fan of FW and that Id never seen a recipe of lasagna that used a mixture of Italian sausage and ground meat, must be incredible. Keep up the good work!

happy holidays chef! love your recipes and can't wait to try yourlasagna. btw the bread recipe is a hit @ my house and go to it frequently... so once again happy holidays to you and yours and hope everyone good health.

Chef John, I had lasagna scheduled for the second day after New Year's one. It would be a classical recipe I have from my Milanesa amica - I already added to my shopping list the extra cheese. Bechamel goodbye !

Chef John, thank you yet again for taking the time out of your busy schedule and making an amazing dish. It means a lot to me when I see people like you who strive to not only create but to teach how to create, it really is rare. I did not know I could create delicious dishes until I found this website, I love it Thanks again for your effort, and Merry christmas!.Seth T

My husband loves lasagne so I'll definitely be trying this recipe soon! Up till now I've been using the one on the back of the box, which is all fine and good, but I bet yours is going to be tastier!

Also, by the way, I cooked my first turkey ever for Xmas yesterday using your instructions, and as always it turned out fantastically! Apparently it was so good I have volunteered myself for turkey duty in all future family Xmases. =) Thanks again for your wonderful videos! I don't know what I'd do without them...

Chef John you are an inspiration. We made this for our Boxing Day (crazy Canadians) dinner. I only changed one thing - GARLIC EH! Added it to the meat and cheese filling.

Thanks - even our kids are watching your videos now. They love Chef John. (So much so that if a meal on my table is really good they ask "Is this from Chef John?" I may actually be chopped liver - not one of my food wishes by the way.

This site really improves people's lives, and brings families back to the table, which is something I believe this country is in desperate need of, so my sincere gratitude to you Chef.

On another note, I always assumed my Aunt served Lasagna on Christmas day because Nana's Spaghetti and Meatballs was simply too informal for the holiday. I never knew this was an actual Italian-American tradition until now - I finally feel I have a culture all my own! (half kidding). Don’t forget the Antipasto appetizer :)

Sorry for the long-winded comment - I'm having a good evening. Hey Chef John, what about some Calabrian-American dishes? I like my pasta with lots of heat & anchovies! I think Napolitano cooking drowned other influences out.

I made this for the family last night and it was delicious! Even my teen daughter mentioned that was a special recipe and very good. Today the left overs went to my starving college musician son downtown, where it will be ravaged no doubt.Thanks Chef John for another well prepared video of a classic pushed to the edge of wonderfulness!

I noticed a couple of comments about garlic and I wanted to mention that adding a bunch of garlic to the cheese mix really works well. I added almost a whole bulb of diced garlic and it didn't overpower the dish with too much garlic flavor. It's just for the cheese layers. And, for those layers, what goes better together than cheese, garlic & italian parsely?

Thanks for this recipe, I will do exactly as you instructed, but... (there's always butts ;-) - think this coz I'm Polish ;-D). But I would like to see the "traditional" one from you too. There's much rumour about bechamel, so I would like to taste it too to compare both and see the advantage of yours :-D. Please, show us, and by the way - is there any simple way to make lasagna noodles itself?

And one technical question - can you force your webmaster to swich off that annoying "home" scrolling (up to the start) after clicking left mouse button? It is important to ppl who want to scroll the page with keyboard but "lost focus" (I mean technical term), and have to click the page to say to the browser "I need focus here now", and BAH! You are AGAIN ath the top of the page, while you've wanted to browse something at the and or a middle - and as you know, some sections has plenty of recipes down there... Big thanks in advance for "repairing" this issue :-)

And keep up being the best food blogger I've seen so far :-). You have a very good sound/tone/timbr of your voice for the job (maybe not the most important, but very NICE :-D).

Finally got a chance to make this lovely lasagna. Using jarred sauce it definitely benefited from extra garlic - but it all depends on what you start with and how you like it. My preference on the next go might be to up the sauce just a little but this is one of the best lasagnas I've ever enjoyed. Thanks for the recipe Chef John.

Before finding this site, I always had this inner desire to cook food but never really knew where to start or what to cook. Silly but true. Then I found FW and in the past three weeks, I have tried five six of your dishes here and even though some didn't turn out as good as i would have liked but who cares. I can't can't can't wait for the weekends so I can cook. I truly enjoy the process. It feels like a spiritual journey to me. honestly. taking something from nature and turning it into food. It's like meditation. LOVE IT and I thank YOU for awakening this passion in me. After three weeks of non stop reading of articles on this site, I think I may have found a new passion in my life. So exciting. :) Thank You

Stumbled upon your video of this dish a couple weeks ago & my husband & I agreed we needed to make this soon. It's in the oven right now & I can't wait to try it. This is only the second time I've made scratch lasagna & I'm anxious to see how it turns out. Someone else commented they couldn't find good ricotta but they can easily make their own which was another video we stumbled upon from Working Class Foodies. I made it yesterday & used it in today's lasagna. This will be a memorable Valentine's dinner to say the least. Cheesecake for dessert anyone?

@Fadhilah: I'm from Singapore too, and I've found blocks of Parmigiano Reggiano at Cold Storage. The brand I have is Granarolo. Good luck!

@Chef John: Once again, I find myself barely an inch from the screen. Watching you spread that cheese mixture sooo slowly was just heaven. This site makes me so happy. Thanks for the vid - I'm gonna spread some Italian love to my family now.

I just made this and had a question... why do you have to cook the meat and mushrooms until there is no more liquid at the bottom? You add the spaghetti sauce right after and add water when it's simmering, so what's the difference?

I'm on a tight budget and couldn't afford a lot for my boyfriend's big birthday this weekend, but I knew that he loves lasagna and cheesecake, so I decided to make both instead of spending tons of money on something materialistic. I'm using your recipes for both dishes, and I've already made the cheesecake...it turned out great, and sans-crack! I'm attempting the lasagna tonight. Thank you so much, Chef John! Cheers.

I tried this recipe today and it worked out perfect. Very moist very cheesy( maybe because i put too much cheese, but it was nice still! ) and over all resturant quality hands down. I never post on blogs but chef John, i tried your turkey ( beautiful even for a hot Australian summer ) and now this and your videos have been very helpful.

Chef John,I've been searching YouTube for a lasagna recipe and this looks delicious! (I am now obsessed with watching your videos and want to make everything!) I'm planning on doing a lasagna dinner for my boyfriend. He always says "it's all about the sauce." My two questions are:

1. Would your tomato sauce recipe go well with your lasagna?2. What would you reccommend for an appetizer and side?3. I will be having Chianti with dinner and will be making tiramisu for dessert. Good choices?

This recipe is such a classic example of a good lasagna that I use it as a template no matter what goes into mine. I just used it to make a vegetarian version with chantrelle mushrooms, caramelized onions, and dinosaur kale. It is yummy. My lasagnas come out much better since I started using this as a base. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. Well, portion control online.

I tried out the lasagna recipe today. Came out great. Much better than anything I have bought frozen or had at a restaurant.

I made my own sauce by sweating the onions and garlic first, then I threw in some peeled tomatoes with the cores taken out, added a diced carrot, and then I let it stir for about 1/2 an hour. The sauce came more as a paste and did not have as much liquid to it but worked very well when I added the meat to it. 2 questions - Any ideas how I can make my sauce have more liquid?andThe meal tasted great but it did not look as good as yours. Any tricks to making it look as good as yours?

If you want more liquid, just simply add more sauce. I can't give you any tips on the beef look since I'm not sure what you mean, but maybe you need to break up the meat much smaller when you prepare the sauce. Thanks!

Just made this and it almost turned out perfect, almost. I was a little to conservative with the spices so it ended up a little tame(no chili, cayenne,nutmeg or anything exiting in the house)But the parents loved it so i choose to mark down as a sucess.I added some grated carrot and a dash of red wine vinegar in the meatsauce and it ended up with a very pleasant taste. Thanks for the lovely recipe!

Making this for Christmas day for 24 so quadrupled the recipe. The sauce is simmering in a huge pot and plann on building the four lasagnas in an hour. Serving with sensation salad, Italian bread and wine. Wish me luck,

Hi chef John. I hope this isn't a silly question, I only have cheddar and mozzarella cheese at home. Where I live, it's hard to find the cheeses you mentioned, and i don't have enough time. do you think i can use cheddar and mozzarella only?

Hi chef John. I hope this isn't a silly question, I only have cheddar and mozzarella cheese at home. Where I live, it's hard to find the cheeses you mentioned, and i don't have enough time. do you think i can use cheddar and mozzarella only?

Made this this week. my husband can't stop talking about how i have really raised the bar on my cooking abilities and i owe it to you. Thank you for this recipe it was so great ONLY i omitted the shrooms cuz they make me shiver and i didn't use sausage cuz hubby wont eat pork. BUT that being said it ROCKED and tasted EVER so quality. Thank you Chef John.

Tried it and loved it! Absolutely super delicious, perfect texture all around! I think your advice "you need a great meat sauce, and a great cheese mixture" is really the key--I tried lasagna before but this time it was much better.

And somehow, we ended up with some extra cheese mix, about 1.5 cup to 2 cups worth. Any idea how to use them? Thanks!

I just made the lasagna today. I think it turned out pretty good and the taste was pretty good as well. Mine turned out a bit watery/soupy but I guess that's because I either put too much meat sauce or the cheese were still abit watery.

Anyway, thanks for taking for time to teach us all these recipes, I'm thinking to trying to make the Tiramisu Chocolate Mousse next :)

This is my FIRST homemade lasagne :) The sauce is cooking on the stove as I type! My husband has never been as excited for one of my meals. I think this one will set the standards high! Thank you so much for sharing these recipe videos! This is the second one I've made. You make cooking easy, fun and most importantly, delicious! THANK YOU!

Question. I'm thinking of cooking this for a church gathering and would rather not have much more than 30 minutes of cooking to do when the actual event starts. Would you recommend cooking it part of the way and then finishing once I'm at the event (there are some ovens there) or cooking all the way beforehand and then simply reheating. If so, how long and at what temp to reheat?

Hi Chef! I am new to your site and I fucking love it. I'm Jewish but this is almost enough to make me want to celebrate Christmas. Anyhow, is this dish appropriate for a random small dinner party? I'll pair it with red wine and side salad with fresh corn. What do u think? Thanks!!!

I don't understand how you can cook a pasta dish for 30min - 1 hr in the oven without the pasta becoming over cook.... I tried once and the pasta was all mushy after 30min of cooking.... Am I doing something wrong?

Hi Chef Jhon just want to ask if there's any substitute cheese for reggiano parmigiano because it is hard to find here in Saudi Arabia? I have visited to many sites to look for a good recipe of lasagna until I saw your video in YouTube and I got interested but the problem is those cheese that you used. I went to all the well known supermarkets here in Saudi but still I haven' bought any of those cheese except for the grated parmasen cheese which comes in a small plastic bottle. I can't wait to try your recipe... (sigh)

I made this for Christmas Eve dinner with my big Italian-American family this year, and it was a big hit! What leftovers there were are being contended over between grandma and my toddler, lol. Great recipe and great instruction - thank you! (Just checked the dates, your excellent recipe lives on 3 years after posting, bravo!)

I have made this lasagna twice and it is sooooo delicious. I have a question: how do you keep the layers from sliding apart when you cut into them? It looks so lovely until I cut it with my fork and then it falls apart into a crazy mess. Doesn't affect the wonderful taste, of course, but I would so rather show off those sexy layers. Thanks!

I made this today for my extended family. I pretty much followed the instructions, but started with a half recipe of Chef John's basic tomato sauce (which yielded about 3 cups of sauce) and just under 2 lbs (combined) of sausage and ground beef. After combining the sauce and meat it resembed sloppy joe, which is what I was shooting for.... I had in my mind that I was going to have four cups of pasta sauce before adding to the meat for whatever reason.

I used a 9x13 pan (gasp) because that's what I have.

Turned out great. The tastes were spot-on for what I had in my mind -- though I could have standed for a little more tomatoe sauce (I guess b/c I'm psycing myself out from not having enough sauce to start with). The last lasagna I made was Tyler Florence's "ultimate" lasagna -- which I thought was a total dud.

The biggst problem for me was that I over-estimated how much meat sauce I had -- meaning I didn't accurately divide it by four -- and I probably used too much on the bottom of the pan, which left too little for the top... But really, this was a relatively easy, yet very tasty lasagna.

This will definitely be my default lasagna recipe from now on. Thanks Chef John for another great recipe!

Hi Chef, I found and made this recipe yesterday. It was amazing. Absolutely the best lasagne I've ever made. And more importantly, my wife said it was the best lasagne she's ever tasted! And you know that old saying - "if mama's not happy...". Thank you so much Chef John! You are the man!!

Just wanted to express my thanks. Before these vids, I never really cooked anything out of the ordinary, much less something that tasted so good. Thanks to these videos I have found a new hobby. This lasagna and your banana choc chip bread...wow. Now I can cook for my fiancee!

I made this recipe for the second time a couple weeks ago for a family gathering. Because I had to accommodate a couple vegetarians in the family, I decided to prepare this as stuffed shells so that I could keep everyone happy. Not a huge surprise, but it worked out great. The cheese filling is good enough to stand alone, but the addition of the meat sauce just puts it over the top.

For the stuffed shells, I found that three cups of sauce to two pounds of meat was perfect... When I made the lasagna I wish I had had four cups of sauce. (I think the recipe calls for six cups.)

Thanks again Chef John. My family was thoroughly impressed with this recipe (even the vegetarians).

I have been on your site off and on for years, but I didn't try this recipe until last night! OH MY GOODNESS, I've been missing out! That was the best lasagna I've ever had! It was so light and scrumptious. We're happily eating leftovers tonight. I used your recipe to make two smaller batches so we could freeze the other for later. It won't be in the freezer long. ;)

Thank you for the time you put into these videos, they make me smile and give me the desire to cook REAL food!

Hi Chef John! I adore your videos (and you),and I've made quite a few of your recipes. I made your lasagne tonight: it was fantastic! Until I dropped it :(

I managed to gather it all up and slop it all back in my dish, topped it again with some cheese I had leftover, and stuck it in the oven. Of course, it tasted great, even if it was more of a de-constructed lasagne.

Thanks for all the work you put in to share your talent with us, you rock!

I discovered Food Wishes and Chef John stumbling over this recipe on Google 3 years back. It was the best thing ever, and launched an obsessive love of the blog and of cooking, much to my family's delight! Chef John, you're amazing: from this to your beef merlot to your twice baked potatoes to your mini quiches (to everything), you've showed me so many wonderful ways to show love through the stomach to family and friends. And all of this with the sometimes odd array of ingredients available here in my expat home of Beijing! (I, too, miss San Francisco for its crab meat). And your sense of humor and calming touches are peerless. Just made this lasagna again, for Christmas this time, and am so looking forward to serving it with pride! Thank you thank you! And the Happiest of Holidays!

AMAZING! I can't deskribe how happy I am that i discovered food wishes! Thank you for your amazing recepie describtion an nice humor in it, I am right now eating this lazagna that tingles my tongue. Thank you so much for your amazing work! :)

Yesterday I made ur tomatoe soup and instead of a plate, I ate the whole pot. All gone!

And now I just made ur lasagne. Oh, I counted 5.000 kcal... . Hopefully someone will visit me, before it`s all eaten the next days... .

I live in europe and visit the italian alps often. I never had a lasagne like this, but it is fantastic and especially a very interesting variation.

I think it`s a real joker for guests and many will need much time to guess what ingredients have been added / replaced :).Thanks for ur channel, I will surely visit it again many times. Inspiring and nice to watch :)!

Thank you for this amazing recipe! The best lasagna I've ever made!! Everyone else loved it too. Chef John, if you can come up with a vegetarian version that is that good, I will be forever in your debt!

Whenever I cook I always make enough to put a 2nd meal in the freezer. I also have enough time on my hands to use homeade pasta sheets in my lasagna. Chef, do you think the homemade pasta would keep in an assembled lasagna in the freezer?

Just made this for supper and I loved it, though I did omit the eggs and ricotta since I had a really bad experience with ricotta about a decade ago that put me off the stuff for life. I just doubled the mozzarella and it turned out just fine :DAlso I do not have the lasagna pan that is extra deep so I ended up with *two* lasagna in 10x10 and 9x13 pans. (I just tore the noodles to fit) (note: I also didn't boil my noodles but let them sit in hot tap water for a few minutes - they were also wheat noodles)

Just made this for my girlfriend, the cooking process was so long, but the meat sauce is heavenly. After the 1 hour in the oven, the lasagna came out gorgeous, and looks really delicious, but the taste is a bit disappointing. The cheese mixture tasted bland, i really dont understand what went wrong. This is the first time i've tried cooking with ricotta cheese and i really didnt like it, due to its lack of flavour. was soo sad.

I guarantee you it was under-salted! Ricotta is very bland. Did you taste the filling? Next time taste after seasoning the filling, and if that tastes good (which it will with enough salt), then you are ready to layer! Good luck!